κυνήγι - A Dance with Nature
Men gather at the break of dawn,
To hunt the fields where myths were born.
Through forests thick and valleys deep,
Where wild creatures softly creep.
The hare that darts through morning mist,
The partridge call that can’t be missed.
The scent of pine, the rustle’s stir,
Echoes of the island's ancient purr.
Tradition whispers in the breeze,
Through whispering leaves and sighing trees.
Stories told by fireside light,
Of hunting’s past and nature’s might.
The bond with earth, so deeply sown,
In Cyprus’ heart, its seeds are grown.
For in the hunt, both old and new,
A dance with nature, ever true.
Hunting has a special place in Cypriot culture. Originally an essential activity for survival and subsistence, hunting has become embedded into the cultural heritage of Cyprus. Associated with traditional practices and folklore, hunting skills and stories are often passed down through generations, contributing to a sense of identity and continuity. Hunting rituals and the symbolism associated with it play a role in Cypriot folklore and mythology.
The 1974 Cyprus invasion and partition accelerated the transition from a traditional rural to a post-industrial, highly skilled and educated modern society, bringing with it a more ambivalent view of hunting today. Driven by a globally shared tension between cultural traditions and modern environmental and ethical concerns, in Cyprus there is also the sense of two styles of society living together, but apart - sharing the same roof, but not at ease with each other.
For the hunters, hunting is a personal and recreational experience that tests their skill but in particular their patience. Hunting provides a profound connection to nature with hunters spending significant time in the outdoors. Just how much patience and time can only be appreciated by joining them for a typical hunt.
This I and a friend did one day early in November – a day with Kyriacos, Stavros, Michalis, Nikolas and young trainee Thanasis.
Our day begins with a 3.00am alarm call and a drive to Limassol where the boys are up, washing the dogs and their kennels before loading them on to the diplokampina for the journey up to the mountains.
Soon we leave the paved highways and night lights of the city and head along increasingly narrower, lonely and rising tracks. We are heading up into the mountains - but where I have no clue.
I do my best to keep up with the convoy in front which clearly knows where it is going and the paths to get there. They show no hesitation as they speed across ever curvier dirt tracks - it is pitch black outside and luckily I cannot see just how high we are and just how far below is the valley floor.
And then suddenly we stop - in the pitch black - with no landmark around us to say we have arrived somewhere. It is 5:30am, completely dark other than the motor headlights from which we can make out the mountain top above us and the steep valley floor below us. The cold of the night suddenly grips me even tighter as I try to deal with the jeopardy of the drive that that I have just undertaken, luckily in blissful ignorance of its mortal perils.
It’s coffee time!
It would not be Cypriot coffee if it was not accompanied by profound debate on the weighty matters of the day.
Dawn light now caresses the mountain tops and slowly cascades down its slopes. Birds are early morning tweeting - the hunters recognise every call but take no action - its hare hunting season, the birds will have to wait their turn.
Coffee finished, the hunters huddle and debate, pointing hands in different directions as they devise their strategy for the morning. A plan is agreed and the vehicles head off in different directions - I follow one of the diplokampina. The hunt is on!
One hunter takes the dogs to the bottom of a valley, the other three spread across the valley top, waiting for the dogs to drive the hare towards them. I keep close to one of the waiting hunters, straining eyes down towards the sound of dogs and activity below, expecting any second now for a hare to jump out of the bush and into the hunter’s trap.
What I come to learn over the next few hours is that modern day hunting involves a lot of waiting… and patience…and more waiting.
Over the next several hours the hunters change position a couple of times, each time with the same plan, use the dogs to drive the hare uphill to the waiting lurkers. Each time we get the same result. A lot of active hound activity and barking; a lot of sitting on haunches and waiting; a lot of staring intensely for any sign of hare activity.
Finally around noon, some six hours after we took our first positions in the valley, the boys decide to close the morning session. They showed no frustration that we had not even seen a hare all morning or fired a shot - it happens they said, and there was always this afternoon’s session.
But now it was time for that part of the day without which this would not be a true Cypriot κυνήγι - souvla!
The hunters’ skills of the wild are matched by their culinary craft. They are well prepared - barbecues, varieties of meats and starters, salads, condiments and seasoning, plates and cutlery, all carefully and professionally packed for the occasion. The only thing they did not have was alcohol. Hunting rules have been tightened significantly over the years following regular fatalities during the season - now alcohol risks losing your hunting licence, an unbearable fate for the devoted hunter. I put my bottle of zivania - my proposed contribution to the feast - back into my car. The dogs are watered and put back into the kennels in the rear of the diplokampona.
Although deeply traditional and deeply rural, hunting in Cyprus has been forced to adapt to modern demands. From licensing and strict seasons, conservation and animal welfare restrictions, even down to clothing - no bright orange item of dress , no hunting. Technology too - the hunters were in touch by radio headsets and the dogs wore GPS collars so they could be tracked. Despite this, the true soul of the hunting tradition survives in the highly dedicated and committed hunting community - an inherent part of the Spirit of Cyprus today.